China launches secretive suborbital vehicle for reusable space transportation system
Friday, 16 July 2021 15:32
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HELSINKI — China conducted a clandestine first test flight of a reusable suborbital vehicle Friday as a part of development of a reusable space transportation system.
Umbra and Hypergiant among firms selected for Air Force JADC2 contract
Friday, 16 July 2021 15:03 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Air Force awarded indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts to 29 companies including Umbra, Kymeta, Hughes Network Systems and Hypergiant Galactic Systems to support the Defense Department’s campaign to ensure sensors from all the services feed data into a common network.
James Webb Space Telescope testing progress continues
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:06 Write a comment
Engineers have made considerable progress in checking off NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's final series of tests. Three big milestones have recently been completed, bringing the world's most complex and powerful space science telescope ever built much closer to being fully prepared for its million-mile journey to orbit. These three testing milestones are outlined below:
Deployable Tower Assembly Testing: Completed
This telescoping tower helps Webb maintain its necessary super cool operating temperatures by separating its mirrors and instruments from the comparatively warmer Sun-facing side and spacecraft bus.
Activity discovered on largest comet ever found
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:01 Write a comment
A newly discovered visitor to the outer edges of our solar system has been shown to be the largest known comet ever, thanks to the rapid response telescopes of Las Cumbres Observatory. The object, which is named Comet C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its two discoverers, was first announced on Saturday, June 19th, 2021. C/2014 UN271 was found by reprocessing four years of data from the Dark Energy Survey, which was carried out using the 4-m Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile between 2013 and 2019.
Satellites map floods in western Europe
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:00 Write a comment
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Record rainfall has caused swollen rivers to burst their banks and wash away homes and other buildings in western Europe. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission are being used to map flooded areas to help relief efforts. Rescuing Integral: No thrust? No problem
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:00 Write a comment
A year ago tomorrow, a failure on the Integral spacecraft meant it fired its thrusters for likely the last time. In the days since, the spacecraft in Earth orbit has continued to shed light on the violent gamma ray Universe, and it should soon be working even more efficiently than before, as mission control teams implement an ingenious new way to control the 18-year-old spacecraft.
NASA studies bigger, better Mars helicopter
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33 Write a comment
As the Mars helicopter Ingenuity breaks interplanetary records and captures the public's attention, NASA is quietly researching a bigger, better Mars chopper to navigate the Red Planet's rough terrain.
The next aircraft sent to Mars has no budget, no confirmed design and no launch date, but researchers at NASA and various universities have studied possible destinations for such a missio Zhurong rover visits parachute and backshell
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33 Write a comment
The China National Space Administration published on Thursday three pictures taken recently by its Zhurong Mars rover that showed the parachute and bowl-shaped back shell used in the rover's landing.
The pictures - one color and two black-and-white - were shot by Zhurong's navigation camera on Monday as the rover was traveling southward for its scientific exploration, the administration sa Juno tunes into Jovian radio triggered by Jupiter's volcanic moon Io
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33 Write a comment
By listening to the rain of electrons flowing onto Jupiter from its intensely volcanic moon Io, researchers using NASA's Juno spacecraft have found what triggers the powerful radio emissions within the monster planet's gigantic magnetic field. The new result sheds light on the behavior of the enormous magnetic fields generated by gas-giant planets like Jupiter.
Jupiter has the largest, mos NASA identifies computer problem on Hubble, says fix will take a few days
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Engineers at NASA have identified the potential cause of a payload computer problem that has sidelined the Hubble Space Telescope for more than a month.
The agency said Thursday it would start a process to switch to a backup system, and that the telescope could be back to normal operations within a few days.
The payload computer, part of Hubble's Science Instrument Command and Da Germany becomes latest NATO member to establish military space command
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33 Write a comment
During the Cold War, the US tested a slew of anti-satellite weapons, including detonating a nuclear weapon in space, which damaged a Soviet satellite. However, only recently has Washington worried that space was becoming militarized - now that other nations are developing similar capabilities.
On Tuesday, Germany became the latest NATO power to inaugurate a separate space command, followin China's Commercial Space Industry
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Richard Branson won the billionaire space race this week when he boarded his Virgin Galactic spacecraft and became the first "space tourist" for a few minutes. He got there ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos who is to take off in his Blue Origin rocket next week.
Of course, American firms aren't the only ones heading into space. In recent months, China's national space program has landed r Lockheed Martin opens new spacecraft facility in Florida
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33 Write a comment
Lockheed Martin opened a new spacecraft facility Thursday to help build NASA's Orion lunar capsules near Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Lockheed Martin says the new STAR Center in Titusville is now a "digitally transformed factory of the future" that will help produce spacecraft to take astronauts to the moon. STAR stands for Spacecraft Test, Assembly and Resource.
"This repres Musk's Starship launch tower in Texas might be demolished
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33 Write a comment
The massive launch tower for the Starship spacecraft at a SpaceX site in Texas may be demolished based on the results of an ongoing environmental review, CNBC reported, citing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
"The company is building the tower at its own risk", a FAA official told CNBC.
The source in the agency also noted that the review might recommend demolishing the laun India's ISRO tests high-powered rocket engine for country's first manned mission
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33 Write a comment
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to send two uncrewed flights to test end-to-end capacity for the country's first manned mission, Gaganyaan. As the first flight deadline is December, the space agency is racing against time to launch the mission as the COVID-19 lockdown has drastically affected their schedule.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has succes